1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the area of communication services. In particular, the present invention relates to systems and methods for scheduling calls between at least two parties.
2. Background of the Invention
Advising services have become very popular within the last 15 years, and currently, there are a fair number of companies rendering advice to individuals, groups and organizations. Such advising services may include legal, financial, medical, psychic/astrological, or any other expert and non-expert services. Psychic services are one such advising service and have grown tremendously over this time span. Individuals can speak with a psychic over the phone to obtain advice on the individuals' future, for example. As such psychic services grow, repeat users desire to talk with particular psychics. However, many customers of such services have been increasingly found that the particular psychic they wish to speak with is already engaged in a call with another customer.
This poses a problem for the psychic service company. Customer satisfaction in many circumstances corresponds to the ability of a customer to be connected with the psychic they desire. This issue is heightened when consideration is given to the psychic company's best customers (frequent users) and their best psychics (being high in demand).
Secondly, with the growth of psychic service businesses, there is a need to add quality psychics and astrologers to a company's network. A significant part of attracting and retaining quality psychics is compensation. Because psychics and astrologers are paid based on the time they are actually on a call performing a reading (as opposed to the amount of time they have made themselves available to take a call), the more time a psychic spends on calls during the time they have made themselves available, the higher the compensation.
Accordingly, there is a great need for a method (and corresponding apparatus/system) that would allow such companies to allow frequent users to be connected with desired, highly regarded psychics easily, as well as a method/system which helps psychics (or experts in other advising service companies) to more efficiently manage their time, yielding an advantage to the psychic services company to attract and retain top quality psychics and astrologers.